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Confession: my kitchen here in Italy is not pretty.

I have dreams of a beautiful kitchen.  Some day . . .

As a matter of fact, I have visions of an actual “dream home” one of these days.

I admit, though, my Italian kitchen is very functional.

For example, I don’t have a pretty, organized pantry for all our canned/packaged food, but I have an open shelving unit up against the wall. Thank you, Ikea!

I love the open shelving because I can easily grab what I need while I’m cooking.

And it’s super easy to put groceries away.

Just not pretty.

One of these days, though, I really would like a pretty kitchen . . .

I also don’t have a bunch of fancy equipment.

But I have acquired items over the years that I consider to be super useful kitchen equipment as I work with the recipes on this site.

I’ll be adding to this list as I post more recipes.

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This is a reversible cast iron grill/griddle from Emeril Lagasse.

I used it most recently when I made the Shrimp Fajitas.

This grill/griddle covers two burners on my stove.

If I didn’t want to venture outside, I could flip this over to the grill side and get things done in my kitchen.

This would work for grilling vegetables like these zucchini.

We’ve also used it to grill our marinated flank steak.

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The “coupe” glass.

I’ve used these in several of our cocktail recipes.  Most recently, for our strawberry martini.

I love drinking out of these things.  Some of these coupes are crazy expensive, but these are very reasonable.

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I started off using just an empty jar to shake my cocktails.  (I know.  I’m embarrassed.)

Having a cocktail shaker available has been really nice.  I’ve got a couple now and I’m planning to get a third — something a little different from the two I already have. (I’ll update this list once I have a chance to test it out.)

For the price of these shakers, toss away that empty jar and get yourself an actual cocktail shaker.

The sound alone is lovely!  Music to my ears.

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I’d be lost without my kitchen timer.

I’m thrilled with this one from KitchenAid because I don’t have to twist anything.

Seems like the timers I’ve used before that require me to twist have always broken pretty quickly.  I’m probably too rough with them.

With this one, though, I just punch in the time, hit start (DON’T forget to hit start!  I learned the hard way) and go about your business until it beeps.

Many cookies have been saved thanks to my trusty timer!

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A KitchenAid mixer.  This is the model I currently have.

It was a splurge a few years ago, and I acquired several attachments (ice cream, pasta, meat grinder).  Note to self: I am behind on attachments. Time to shop!

When you think about it, this is a bargain compared to purchasing each appliance separately.

I find this appliance to be super useful.  When I finally get my dream home, there’s going to be a special spot for this guy.

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A set of cast iron skillets.

I use these all. the. time.  Jeff and I got a set from our friends Jason and Maribeth for our wedding back in ’91.

They are still going strong (one may have gotten lost in a move).  We love these.

There’s a time for non-stick.  And by that I mean, “Jeff, don’t make scrambled eggs in the cast iron skillet and expect me to clean up after you.”

I use cast iron for browning meats and also for those cheesy hot dips, like our Jalapeno dip.  I also use the cast iron for recipes that start on the stove top and then finish in the oven — like the Jalapeno Popper Chicken Skillet.